Recent Posts Tagged With 'language learning'

• Clearing Up the Blogroll

  Posted on Sunday September 27th, 2009 at 15:58 in updates, blogs, languages, language learning

  Hi everyone, I’m back from my brief hiatus. I had a fantastic time with my friend, even though she had to cut her visit short due to her grandmother passing away. Since it’s already quite late and I need to return to the text I’m tr...

• Japan Times Online

  Posted on Friday September 4th, 2009 at 11:52 in japan, articles, japanese, languages, kanji, language learning, japanese culture

  A short post from me today… Some “bilingual” articles can be found on the Japan Times Online website. Many of them can be found here and while they are not entirely bilingual, many of the articles contain useful (and not-so-useful) ...

• Guest Blogger – Karen Schweitzer – 15 Free Language Learning Podcasts

  Posted on Wednesday August 26th, 2009 at 12:36 in podcasts, languages, language learning, guest bloggers

  Have you always wanted to learn a new language but could never find the time in your busy schedule. Language learning podcasts are a great way to learn at your own pace when it is convenient for you. Here are 15 free language podcasts to try out in y...

• Memorista.Com

  Posted on Wednesday August 26th, 2009 at 11:59 in languages, vocabulary, language learning, mnemonics, learning aids

  One of my readers, Francis, wrote to me a few days ago to let me know about a site he felt could be useful to language learners. Memorista.Com is a site designed for teaching basic vocabulary through the use of mnemonics (i.e. memory aids) and is ide...

• Last Chance to Vote!

  Posted on Saturday July 25th, 2009 at 14:13 in contests, competitions, languages, language learning, voting, top blogs, lexiophiles

  The voting phase of the Lexiophiles Top 100 Language  Blogs 2009 contest ends in two day’s time. Hundreds of blogs have been nominated and have been categorised into four voting categories : Language Learning Language Teaching Language Techno...

• Using Twitter in Your Language Learning – Useful Resources

  Posted on Saturday July 25th, 2009 at 12:00 in languages, language learning, twitter, microblogging, foreign languages

  As promised, here is the third and final part of my series on how to use Twitter in your language learning. I have listed a number of accounts below which may be beneficial to language learners who have Twitter accounts. These include “words of...

• MyLangBlog is Back

  Posted on Sunday June 14th, 2009 at 12:29 in blogs, languages, language learning, foreign languages, polyglot

  Another short and sweet post for today… I wanted to let you all know that Cathy (also known as Cisa) has revived her language blog, My Language Learning Blog. The blog was offline for a few months but is now back with a vengeance. Feel free to ...

• The Glossophile Language Forum

  Posted on Saturday June 6th, 2009 at 04:53 in languages, forums, online communities, language learning, glossophile

  For those of you who are looking for another language learning forum for sharing your thoughts and experiences of learning foreign languages, feel free to check out the Glossophile Language Forum. The forum is part of the Glossophile website, a websi...

• The A to Z Challenge – Basque – Part 1

  Posted on Monday May 25th, 2009 at 16:12 in languages, language learning, euskara, basque, foreign languages, a to z challenge

  I’ve been studying Basque for about a week now so I thought it was time for a quick update of my progress. I’ve been using a combination of resources, including the Google books version of Colloquial Basque and the online course Egun On (...

• News Round-up – 24th May

  Posted on Sunday May 24th, 2009 at 12:40 in news, languages, language learning, rosetta stone, endangered languages

  Apologies for not posting any language news last Sunday but I was too busy with other tasks and visiting a friend who had just had a baby. Here’s a selection of this week’s language news. Grad Student Helps Save Endangered Language (News...

• Cast Your Vote!

  Posted on Tuesday May 19th, 2009 at 13:31 in languages, language learning, polls, foreign languages, polyglot, a to z challenge

  Observant readers may notice that I’ve added a poll in the right side menu. I’m calling on readers to help me select the two wildcard languages for my A to Z Challenge. I will leave the poll open until June 30th and will choose the two la...

• First Steps in Cantonese

  Posted on Friday May 15th, 2009 at 19:18 in languages, language learning, cantonese

  I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before but I’ve been practising my Mandarin with a Singaporean man who works in the canteen at my company. Although his native language is Hakka, he knows enough Mandarin to have short but insightful ...

• The A to Z Challenge – Albanian – Summary

  Posted on Monday May 11th, 2009 at 17:50 in languages, language, language learning, albanian, shqip, a to z challenge

  About Albanian : Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by around 6 million people in Albania, Kosovo and other parts of the Balkan peninsula. It is written with a modified Latin alphabet and is believed to descend from Illyrian and/or Daco-Thr...

• News Round-up – 10th May 2009

  Posted on Sunday May 10th, 2009 at 08:21 in news, Chinese, languages, language learning, navajo, foreign languages, coptic, endangered languages

  Starting from today, I will be posting weekly digests of news articles which focus on languages and language learning. I used to post regular news updates on Aspiring Polyglot v1 so I felt it was time to revive this feature on Aspiring Polyglot v2. ...

• The A to Z Challenge - Albanian (Days 3-8)

  Posted on Monday May 4th, 2009 at 16:22 in languages, language learning, albanian, shqip, a to z challenge

  Apologies for the lack of updates over the past few days. I had a very nice and well-deserved long weekend. Last Thursday was a public holiday, Koninginnedag (”Queen’s Day”), and my company also decided to give us the Friday off so ...

• The A to Z Challenge

  Posted on Saturday April 25th, 2009 at 16:51 in updates, languages, language learning, foreign languages, a to z challenge

  I’ve finally finished writing that blasted essay! It’s finished, printed out and hopefully on its way to the examiners in Leicester so I can finally concentrate on my blog and language learning again. Not that I didn’t enjoy my Clas...

• Guest Blogger - Katie Wilson - 4 Effective Ways to Learn a Foreign Language on Your Own

  Posted on Saturday April 25th, 2009 at 03:06 in tips, languages, language learning, guest bloggers

  The following article was written by Katie Wilson, a writer for Online Universities. There are times when I’ve often wished my parents had different mother tongues. Admittedly they would have found it difficult to understand each other unless one o...

• Essay Woes

  Posted on Tuesday April 21st, 2009 at 12:33 in updates, blogs, japanese, languages, language learning, mandarin

  I haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth. I’m just busy writing (and re-writing) an essay which I have to send off by Friday. Expect plenty of updates once I’ve finished piecing together my academic masterpiece. Since I need to...

• Links, Links, Links…

  Posted on Tuesday March 24th, 2009 at 17:17 in poetry, blogs, Chinese, languages, vocabulary, language learning, mandarin, learning chinese, 中文, 汉字, 文言文

  I’m still working on a post about the importance of learning Dutch so today I’m going to take the easy way out and share some links that I think are worth checking out. How Difficult is Chinese? -Liz has posted a great post about the c...

• 有趣的汉字

  Posted on Thursday March 19th, 2009 at 18:07 in reading, Chinese, languages, language learning, mandarin, chinese characters, 汉字

  It has been almost a week since my last proper update (not counting the two language learner interviews I posted on Saturday) so I thought it was time for me to prove that I’m still alive and well. My partner has been away on business this we...

• Quelle Semaine!

  Posted on Sunday March 8th, 2009 at 07:21 in china, updates, blogs, websites, french, japanese, Chinese, languages, kanji, language learning, mandarin, cultural heritage

  What a week it has been! My mother was in hospital on Monday (discharged on Tuesday, thank God), I spent 3 hours travelling home on Tuesday, work was insanely chaotic on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and yesterday a pleasant evening with some frien...

• My Language Notebook

  Posted on Saturday February 28th, 2009 at 10:54 in Software, reviews, languages, language learning, my language notebook

  My Language Notebook is a fantastic little tool for language learners. I was asked to review the software and after a few days of playing around with it, I feel I should recommend it to anyone who enjoys making notes when learning from a textbook or ...

• The Green-Eyed Monster Strikes Again?

  Posted on Tuesday February 24th, 2009 at 17:21 in thoughts, languages, language learning, university challenge, polyglot

  I watched the series final of University Challenge on BBC2 last night after reading about Gail Trimble, the leader of the Corpus Christi team and the woman who many believe to be the cleverest contestant ever to take part in this long-running show. I...

• On the Spot - Ramses

  Posted on Sunday February 1st, 2009 at 07:27 in language, interviews, language learning, learning languages

  One final language learning survey for this week (or the first one of the week, if you considering Sunday the first day of the week!). Today’s interviewee is Ramses, author of the Spanish Only blog, who has decided to share this thoughts of lea...

• On the Spot - John Biesnecker

  Posted on Friday January 30th, 2009 at 04:48 in Chinese, languages, interviews, language learning, mandarin

  Today’s interviewee is John Biesnecker. John is an American living in Shanghai and used to work for Praxis Language, the company behind ChinesePod and its sister sites. John’s latest blog, Never Stop Moving, is a great read for anyone int...

• Revisiting Persian

  Posted on Thursday January 29th, 2009 at 15:19 in thoughts, books, websites, languages, language learning, persian, farsi, learning languages, persian language

  Readers who have been following my online exploits since the days of the original Aspiring Polyglot blog will know that I have dabbled with Persian (Farsi) in the past. This was before I started learning Japanese and taking my Dutch studies seriously...

• On the Spot - Vincent of Street-Smart Language Learning

  Posted on Wednesday January 28th, 2009 at 14:22 in languages, interviews, language learning

  Another language learner interview for all of you to read and possibly learn something from. I have a lot of other things going on this week so I haven’t had the time to write a post of my own. Here’s Vincent’s language learner inte...

• Why Language Classes Don’t Work

  Posted on Friday January 23rd, 2009 at 19:16 in thoughts, learning, languages, classes, language learning, foreign languages, learning languages, self-study, language classes

  I stumbled upon Tim Ferriss’s blog today and came across one of his language learning articles, Why Language Classes Don’t Work : How to Cut Classes and Double Your Learning Rate. Tim makes some very good points about why language learner...

• Thoughts on Translation

  Posted on Thursday January 22nd, 2009 at 16:58 in thoughts, Chinese, translation, language learning

  For the past few months, I’ve been translating news articles and biographies for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology (you can see the institute’s website here). This has been a fantastic way for me to de...

• Language Learning Tips - Personalised Phrasebooks

  Posted on Saturday January 10th, 2009 at 12:58 in tips, languages, notebooks, phrases, language learning

  Today I discovered that one of my long-time readers felt it was a shame that I deleted many of my old blog posts when I deleted my blogs Aspiring Polyglot (version 1) and Dragon Fruit. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to retrieve many of them...